ARTIFACTS, ACQUISITIONS and ACADEMICS

Condition reporting the painting, "City of Lethbridge c. 1919"

Condition reporting the painting, "City of Lethbridge c. 1919," oil on board, before it goes on exhibit at the Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives in April 2011. From the University of Lethbridge Art Collection, gift of the Ukrainian Canadian Association of Lethbridge, 1971.

"Festival of the Worm II"

Jack Shadbolt, "Festival of the Worm II," Acrylic, ink and gouache on paper, 69.2 x 102.6 cm. 1954-63.
Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia; gift of the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

"Wood for the People"

Myfanwy MacLeod, "Wood for the People," concrete. 2002. Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The University of British Columbia; purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance program and the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation, 2003.

Removing adhesive from the edges of a pastel drawing, Frank McMahon, "Oilman From Vancouver, 1970"

Removing adhesive from the edges of a pastel drawing, Frank McMahon, "Oilman From Vancouver, 1970," pastel on paper by artist, Nicholas de Grandmaison. From the University of Lethbridge Collection, gift of the De Grandmaison Family, 1988.

Condition reporting the painting, "City of Lethbridge c. 1919"

Condition reporting the painting, "City of Lethbridge c. 1919," oil on board, before it goes on exhibit at the Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives in April 2011. From the University of Lethbridge Art Collection, gift of the Ukrainian Canadian Association of Lethbridge, 1971.

Tape removal from a work by A. C. Leighton, "Threshing, Alberta"

Tape removal from a work by A. C. Leighton, "Threshing, Alberta," watercolour on paper, 1928. From the University of Lethbridge Art Collection, purchase 1988 as a result of a donation in 1987 by Mr. Gerald Pencer, Calgary.

One of the University of Lethbridge art gallery storage areas.

One of the University of Lethbridge art gallery storage areas where unframed works on paper are stored. On the table is a glazed ceramic work "Hanging Cabbages" by artist Gathie Falk (undated). The center one has been surface cleaned. From the University of Lethbridge Art Collection, gift of Jim Coutts, 2010.

"Circumstances of ABC ... (II)"

Universities hold some of the most extensive and exciting art collections in western Canada. How do they stay relevant and accessible?

By Portia Priegert

University art collections hold thousands of objects — from Picasso prints and experimental videos to Inuit sculptures and paintings by Emily Carr. Caring for them is an increasingly challenging job, as institutions cope with growing collections and tighter budgets. Storage space is at a premium and staff must often devote time to organizing exhibitions as well as the day-to-day concerns that face every collection, such as updating records and controlling heat, humidity and other environmental factors that cause works to deteriorate. But one of the biggest risks to art comes when people handle it. And for a university collection, that’s a critical issue because instructors and researchers often need to see pieces up close.

“There’s a risk of fire and a risk of terrible weather and moisture getting into the building where the collection is housed, and those are all big factors,” says Juliet Graham, registrar of the University of Lethbridge’s art collection. “You try to do everything you can to prevent that from happening. But really, where damage mostly occurs, in all collections, is when works are handled.”

Graham, along with her former assistant, Miranda Grol, is organizing an exhibition at the university’s gallery that offers a behind-the-scenes look at conservation of the institution’s 13,000 objects. Caring for the Collection, which runs from October 26 to December 24, features work that has undergone conservation treatment, as well as photographs and videos that illustrate various tricks of the trade.

While Graham says the collection is generally in good condition, one thing they pay special attention to is work in frames. “They look beautiful from the front, but you open up the back and it’s taped in with some horrible fibre-based tape that’s yellowed and crackled,” says Graham. “That’s really common. When that happens, it affects the paper and weakens the fibres in the paper because the acidity in the tape, or the surrounding materials, makes the artwork very fragile. And then it’s vulnerable to handling damage over time when people are moving it around and don’t realize that. It’s easy for little tears to happen.”

Conservators are increasingly opting for preventive measures rather than dramatic treatments to repair individual pieces. “If you could put $1,000 into a single treatment, that would be one thing,” says Graham. “But if you could put $1,000 into materials to house 15 works so they could be handled without being damaged, that would be a better use of your money. That’s the direction conservation is going overall — to put in place preventive measures so the damage curators know is going to occur, or is likely to occur, is less likely. For instance, an artwork on paper in a frame with glass and matting is much safer than an artwork that’s loose.”

Some older universities started collections a century ago and have extensive historic and ethnographic holdings. The University of Alberta houses artifacts collected between 1890 and 1939 by Molly Cork, the first female missionary in the Belgian Congo. Some institutions have special collections amassed by wealthy benefactors, such as a large coin collection at the University of Calgary donated by businessman Carl O. Nickle in 1980.

The curator of the university gallery often oversees the collection, but some universities don’t have galleries. Sometimes, there’s not even a fine arts program. The University and College Art Gallery Association of Canada surveyed its membership between 2004 and 2006, hoping to get a better understanding of how university galleries and art collections function. “Trying to define what university art galleries are as a collective group is like trying to define finches on the Galapagos Islands,” says the association’s president, Peter Dykhuis, director of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax. “We conducted the survey because we had this idea that we all had these similar traits and attributes, you know, we’re all birds. Then we find out that we’re all like exotic sub-species of finches. A lot of it has to do with the missions of the various universities, how they came into being.”

Most post-secondary institutions have some art, even if it’s just portraits of former presidents or work by professors and students displayed in foyers. But it’s hard to get an exact figure of the total number of works in collections. One estimate, by the galleries association in 2006, suggests national holdings of around 200,000 objects, with a corresponding value of some $500 million. But monetary valuations are problematic, given the vagaries of the art market and the fact that most of a collections’ market value typically resides in a small subset of work that may not reflect overall cultural or historic values.

As storage and conservation issues became more pressing over the last several decades, universities began setting up management systems. Policies governing collections vary in scope but typically set out criteria for acquisitions based on things such as the work’s condition and artistic merit as well as the institution’s ability to care for it properly. Policies can also guide decisions about exhibitions, reproductions and loans to other institutions.

Many universities are now trying to focus acquisition in a few key directions, such as work by regional artists, items that are useful for research or teaching programs and pieces that enhance significant bodies of work already in the collection. The University of Alberta has a collection of 3,000 prints, including work by artists from Japan and Eastern Europe, where there’s a strong tradition of printmaking. The university, which has a respected printmaking program, houses the collection in a special study centre open to visitors two days a week.

“It’s a very well-regarded, internationally known print collection, and our focus is international,” says curator Jim Corrigan. “I was recently in Japan talking to a Japanese art university about developing a print centre there after they’d seen ours. So it has a good reputation and it’s almost self-perpetuating in terms of people wanting their work to get into the collection. We’re negotiating with a Japanese print artist on a major donation to the collection.”

The Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at UBC also has strategic collecting interests, including the province’s avant-garde, Vancouver’s post-war history and emerging contemporary artists. The gallery has more than 3,000 works, including 490 by the late Jack Shadbolt, an important regional artist, as well as archival material related to conceptual art, concrete poetry, mail art and performance art.

Their collection is distinct in western Canada, like collections in universities across the region, including the focus on contemporary Canadian art and European and North American decorative arts at the University of Victoria, an archive of works and materials associated with the late painter Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald, at the University of Manitoba, and a special cache of donated paintings by the Regina Five — Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, Ron Bloore, Ted Godwin, and Douglas Morton — at the University of Regina.

HOW TO: Donating to a University Art Collection

By Portia Priegert

If you want to donate a painting or sculpture to a university art collection, a good first step is to research what types of work different universities are collecting. As storage space is limited — and some donations are refused — it’s important to find a good fit for your work.

Contact the person who manages the collection, often the university gallery’s director or curator. They may ask to see photos or to look at the work in person. If they like what they see and think it belongs in the collection, they may recommend it to the university committee overseeing acquisitions. Such committees require solid evidence about provenance — including where a work has been exhibited and when it was bought. Committee members probably want to know why a work would enhance the university’s collection. Is it an important piece from a regional artist? Does it fill a gap in the collection? Is it of special historical interest?

An independent appraisal of fair market value is often needed. Most donated artworks are treated as charitable gifts-in-kind and deductions

can be claimed on the donor’s income tax form. In special cases, a work may undergo certification as cultural property. This means the work is deemed to be of outstanding significance and national importance. The process is long and complex, but the designation gives the donor a considerable tax advantage.